17th March 2025, Cook Islands – An intensive two-week training program by the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre on Gender, Violence Against Women and Girls, Human Rights, and Counsellor Training is started today in the Cook Islands in collaboration with the Punanga Turuturu Itivaine, Cook Islands Women’s Support Centre.
This training is being facilitated by a team led by Coordinator Shamima Ali who says the objective is to help participants identify specific types of violence against women and girls, as well as the cause and contributing factors.
“Additionally, participants will learn to recognize the consequences of such violence on women and girls, their family members, and the broader community,’ she adds.
“The training will also explore response and prevention actions that can be taken to eliminate violence against women. Moreover, sessions on Counselling Skills will ensure a survivor-centered approach, and support using a rights-based approach,”
FWCC’s relationship with the Cook Islands and Punanga Turuturu Itivaine dates back to the first meeting of the Pacific Women’s Network Against Violence Against Women in 1992.
When the Pacific Women’s Network was created, there were only two centres addressing violence against women: FWCC in Fiji and Punanga Tauturu (as it was known at the time) in Cook Islands. Now the Network brings together organisations from over 10 Pacific countries.
“So, we were invited to go to the Cook Islands in 1996 after the first regional meeting in 1992” said Shamima who is also the Chair of the Pacific Women’s Network Against Violence Against Women.
“We were invited by the Cook Islands to strengthen Punanga Tauturu at that time and do the training. We also did a male advocacy in the 2000s. Cook Islands was one of the first countries second to Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu,”
She says they are very excited that the relationship with Punanga Turuturu Itivaine has been ongoing.
“Even after a lull, the request has come through, and that also shows the trust that people who work in this area around the region have in the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre,’ adds Shamima.
A comprehensive and holistic training module has been developed by FWCC and is used in various training packages locally and regionally with relevant adaptations.
FWCC has been supported by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for more than three decades.
About Pacific Women’s Network Against Violence Against Women
The regional Pacific Women’s Network Against Violence Against Women (PWNAVAW) has been a catalyst and leadership incubator for most work on sexual and gender-based violence in the region since the 1990s using a rights-based approach. Today, it operates in over 10 Pacific countries and advocates, trains, innovates and sets standards on the prevention and response to gender-based violence, with the Secretariat based at the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC). This is a clear example of the many ways that Pacific feminists have built the road we walk on.
In 1992, FWCC facilitated and hosted the first Pacific Regional Meeting on Violence Against Women in Suva comprising of feminists from 15 Pacific Island countries. The inaugural meeting led to the establishment of the PWNAVAW.
Since its establishment, the PWNAVAW, recognised as the leading network on ending violence against women and girls in the region, has brought together decades of collective expertise, networks and knowledge on ending violence against women and girls in the region, to support the efforts of Pacific governments, national, regional and international CSO and NGO networks and development partners to lift, build and maintain the quality and standards for gender-based violence and counselling services across the Pacific region.
It has served as a support mechanism for women in the Pacific who are working in gender-based violence and human rights. This, in turn, is reflected in the emergence of many counselling centres in the Pacific region including in Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
Collectively since 1992, the Pacific Women’s Network Against Violence Against Women (PWNAVAW) has had a membership of 129 organisations in over 10 countries across the Pacific.
PWNAVAW which is deeply rooted in the principles of feminism, women’s human rights, gender equality and the elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls has also pioneered response and prevention approaches in engaging men.
FWCC’s regional presence
FWCC is a pivotal regional player. It has been provided with Australian aid resources to auspice similar organisations in Tonga and Vanuatu. In 1992, FWCC helped found the Pacific Women’s Network Against Violence Against Women. It continues to act as the Secretariat for this Network and organises its conferences. The Centre undertakes training both across the region and within Fiji. Since 1995, the Centre has offered a four-week regional training twice a year on gender-based violence awareness, prevention and response strategies. This program has trained over 1,000 participants from 15 countries. FWCC also runs specialised training programs. It began police training in 1995 and now trains police not only from Fiji but from other Pacific countries.
